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Thousands of products are stacked on wooden pallets to facilitate handling, warehousing and transporting from manufacture to distribution. Large users often recycle or reuse pallets but for businesses that only occasionally get a pallet-load of product, discarding, burning or just giving them away is more cost efficient. Pallets aren’t made from the high quality or commercially valuable lumber, but even used pallets made of cottonwood, hackberry or other species of trees can be re-purposed into rustic outdoor chairs.

Disassembly

1

Lay a 40-by-48-inch pallet on a solid surface so the deck boards -- the multiple planks that form the loading surface of the pallet -- are face down.

2

Remove the thin boards that are nailed to the stringer boards on the pallet's underside. The stringer boards are the three 1 ½-inch boards that are perpendicular to the deck boards. Use a cat's paw bar or claw hammer to pull out the nails.

3

Turn the pallet over so the deck boards are now face up.

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4

Use chalk to mark a line on the pallet's deck boards for a saw cut that will split the pallet into two pieces. The cut edge should be even with one side of the pallet’s center stringer board so one half will have one stringer board and the other half will have two stringer boards.

5

Saw along this chalk line mark with a circular saw, splitting the pallet in two.

6

Remove the thin pallet deck boards from the part of the pallet that has only the single remaining stringer board. This stringer board will become the chair's legs.

7

Measure along the long side of the now 20 3/4-by-48-inch pallet to locate the gap between the pallet’s deck boards closest to 20 inches, then remove the deck board on each side of this gap.

Construction

1

Mark the pallet stringer boards at the halfway point of the gap you created when you removed the two deck boards in Step 7. You will saw the pallet in half at this mark to form the seat and back of the chair. The shorter portion will become the chair’s seat; the longer portion will be the seat's back.

2

Use a rafter angle square, indexed to the mark you made on the pallet, to draw the mark at 85 degrees on each stringer board.

3

Saw the pallet in two along these marks to separate the seat from the back.

4

Use the rafter angle square to mark the bottom ends of the seat back stringer boards at 85 degrees, then saw along these marks.

5

Select a piece of the pallet deck boards you’ve removed and cut two 7-inch lengths, each with one end cut at 85 degrees instead of square.

6

Select additional pieces of leftover pallet deck boards to make two 18-inch lengths when measured along the long side. Cut each end at 50-degree angles to make seat brackets.

7

Position the seat bottom and back on edge and butt the angled edges together.

8

Position the 7-inch piece of pallet top across the butt joint on the underside of the chair and screw 1 1/2-inch deck screws through these brackets to secure the top and bottom pieces together. Turn the chair over and fasten the back and bottom together on the opposite side.

9

Position one of the 18-inch seat brackets on each side of the chair and secure with 1 1/2-inch deck screws.

10

Saw the remaining pallet stinger board into two pieces, cut square, 14 inches long. Cut the remaining 20-inch piece of wood into equal pieces with one end angled to 20 degrees. These four pieces are the chair’s legs.

11

Screw the longer, square-cut front legs to the underside of the seat edge using four 2 1/2-inch deck screws, then similarly affix the rear legs to the back of the underside of the chair with the angle-cut edge positioned under the seat causing the legs to angle to the rear.

Things Needed

Wooden pallet, 40 by 48 inches

Claw hammer

Cat’s paw bar

Drill

Screwdriver bit

1 1/2-inch deck screws

2 1/2-inch deck screws

Circular saw

Tape measure

Pencil

Two-by-four board, 8 feet long

Chalk line

Rafter angle square

Warnings

Pallets are not usually made from weather-resistant lumber. A good coat of exterior paint will be needed to protect your project and ensure it lasts a long time.

Tips

Slats will be left over from either the top or bottom of the pallet. You may cut these to fill in the gaps between the seat bottom slats if you wish.

A taller chair can be made if you purchase additional lumber to make longer legs.

Pallets come in many sizes. Larger or smaller chairs can be constructed from appropriately sized pallets.

Resources

About the Author

Mike Schoonveld has been writing since 1989 with magazine credits including "Outdoor Life," "Fur-Fish-Game," "The Rotarian" and numerous regional publications. Schoonveld earned a Master Captain License from the Coast Guard. He holds a Bachelor of Science in wildlife science from Purdue University.